


the reason i always pack a little extra in my son's lunchbox

by antikytheras



Series: competitive child rearing [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Humor, M/M, Romantic Comedy, Single Parents, competitive child rearing, leon has gay thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23309584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antikytheras/pseuds/antikytheras
Summary: Raihan puts the bento box into the sink and goes to his daughter to sweep her up into a hug. ‘Is there anything else you wanna tell me?’He does not know how to react when she tearfully and tactlessly confesses, ‘Victor’s princess papa’s cooking is the best thing I’ve ever had in my life.’
Relationships: Dande | Leon & Hop, Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan, Masaru | Victor & Yuuri | Gloria
Series: competitive child rearing [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672282
Comments: 36
Kudos: 213





	the reason i always pack a little extra in my son's lunchbox

**Author's Note:**

> hop is two years younger than leon, and they're all in their late-twenties

Gloria likes going to school.

Her papa always drops her off early in the mornings, before the sun’s even up, so she is almost always the first to arrive. She doesn’t mind the silence, because her papa will always leave her with an interesting book, which she eagerly tears through until one of her friends arrive.

She has lots of friends. They like to stick to her throughout the day. Sometimes they even fight over who gets to sit next to her. She scolds them when they do, but she secretly enjoys the attention. Or maybe it’s not so secret after all. Who knows?

During recess, though, she always goes to find Victor.

Today, he is seated at his usual table in the corner. He is always alone. It’s what prompted her to start talking to him in the first place, because she has managed to become friends with almost all of the other kids, but she has decided that she needs to conquer the kindergarten by becoming friends with _all_ of the kids, including the quiet boy who’s always sitting by himself in a corner.

When he sees her, he brightens into a smile before ducking his head bashfully.

‘Victor!’ she yells.

He is still smiling shyly. ‘Did you bring…?’ he trails off.

She nods, reaching into her backpack and pulling out a brown lunch bag. ‘I did! Papa was so surprised when I said I wanted the veggie wrap,’ she giggles, and drops her voice into an excited whisper. ‘He got me extra ice-cream last night.’

Victor’s eyes are wide with surprise. ‘You did that for me?’

‘Course!’ she giggles again. Victor always makes her laugh, because he is so easily surprised by the silliest little things. ‘You said you wanted to try it out, right?’

‘Y— Yeah.’ Victor shakes his head like he’s trying to shake a thought out of his hair. ‘You didn’t have to, though.’

Gloria puts her hands on her hips and frowns, like how papa does when he’s only a little bit mad at her. ‘Don’t be silly! It’s not fair for you to keep giving me your princess papa’s delicious food when my papa can’t even cook.’

Victor reaches into his own backpack and pulls out a little cloth bundle, which he unties to reveal two rectangular boxes stacked on top of each other. The stacked boxes apparently have a special name called a “bento box”. Gloria only knows about take-out boxes. She likes the shape of the ones from Chinese take-out restaurants because they remind her of flowers.

Gloria plops down into the seat right next to Victor and puts her brown lunch bag in front of him. ‘Here! You still like the white chip macadamia nut cookies, right?’

Victor nods. He looks a little awed. ‘My dad doesn’t let me eat them that much,’ he confesses.

Gloria giggles. ‘It’s our secret! Our papas don’t have to know.’

And so they continue their newfound tradition of trading their lunches, Gloria exchanging her bag of Subway for Victor’s princess papa’s homemade meal.

Gloria secretly thinks that it’s not a fair trade, but Victor always looks so excited to eat all of the different fast food her papa packs into her backpack before rushing off for work, so she decides that it is only fair for her to try and make up for it by changing her orders to what Victor would want.

She giggles to herself. It’s fun doing things behind her papa’s back. He must have no clue.

Raihan pulls an unfamiliar bento box out of Gloria’s backpack with a frown. ‘Gloria?’

Gloria looks up from her homework with a smile. ‘Mm?’

That smile turns to wide-eyed, guilty horror when she sees what he has in his hands.

Raihan removes the elastic band and peers into the box. He takes note of the uneaten cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices and sighs. He should have known that Gloria wanting more veggies with her lunch had been too good to be true, but he still gives her the chance to confess when he asks, ‘What is this?’

He sees the gears turning in Gloria’s head, and wonders if his daughter will actually have the audacity to _lie_ to him.

When her shoulders drop, he is internally relieved. He really doesn’t like scolding his daughter.

‘Victor and I have been trading lunches,’ she mumbles, looking down at her homework with wet eyes. ‘I guess I forgot to give that back to him.’

Raihan scowls, and her eyes get even shinier, so he quickly quashes his irritation into a jar labelled “Leon” and resolves to hurl it at the real culprit later.

‘Why didn’t you tell me, then?’ he asks instead, trying his best to sound gentle and concerned.

Gloria bounces her legs. It’s a nervous action. ‘You don’t like Victor’s princess papa.’

‘Stop calling him— Never mind,’ he sighs, running a hand through his hair. ‘I’m not mad at you, okay, sweetheart? Okay— I’m a little mad,’ and here Gloria’s sad expression morphs into something that looks suitably guilty and admonished and regretful, and he almost lets out a sigh of relief, ‘but you know you can tell me anything, right?’

Gloria wipes her eyes with her sleeve and sniffles. ‘Okay. Sorry, papa.’

Raihan puts the bento box into the sink and goes to his daughter to sweep her up into a hug. ‘Is there anything else you wanna tell me?’

He does not know how to react when she tearfully and tactlessly confesses, ‘Victor’s princess papa’s cooking is the best thing I’ve ever had in my life.’

He cleans the lunchbox, because while he is absolutely _infuriated_ at Leon right now, he is not a complete asshole, unlike a certain scheming, children’s-heart-stealing parent.

When he turns one of the bento boxes over, there is a bright yellow post-it stuck to the bottom of the box under two pieces of clear tape.

_IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO:_

The rest of the note spells out an address that is less than a fifteen-minute drive away. The handwriting is Leon’s.

Raihan turns the box back over and continues rinsing it out while he thinks. Tomorrow is a Saturday. He does not want to hold onto this unwanted lunchbox. He is very annoyed at Leon right now, and he does not want to be holding onto this anger around his daughter.

With a sigh, he reaches for a dishcloth and dries off the bento box, staring at the yellow post-it note the whole time.

It feels like a trick, a blatant taunt typical of Leon, who has apparently never learned subtlety even after more than a decade. But there is a part of him that wants to know what kind of game Leon intends to play.

‘Gloria!’ he calls. ‘Wanna go out for a little drive?’

Leon lives in one of the cheaper suburbs just a stone’s throw from the city center. His apartment building is old but entirely functional, nothing like the creamy marble and shiny glass of Raihan’s own residential tower.

Gloria is still captivated, of course.

A light flickers overhead, and she immediately turns her head to the ceiling.

‘It’s like in the movies,’ she whispers, awed. ‘Are there ghosts here, papa?’

Raihan is fairly sure that he has never let her watch a horror movie, but he has to admit that something about the general grey, gloomy atmosphere would not be out of place on a movie set.

He gently tugs on her hand and motions her to the elevator. ‘Course not, honey. Even if there were, your papa would scare them away, like—’

He brings his hands up, miming claws, and makes a suitably scary face while he pretends to roar.

Gloria giggles, and there is no more talk of ghosts.

Leon lives on the seventh floor, according to the incriminating box in Raihan’s hands. He has to hit the button twice to get it to light up.

The elevator makes creaking noises while it ascends.

Gloria dramatically whispers, ‘What if we _die_?’

Raihan snickers, but before he can answer, the elevator doors open with a pleasant ding.

According to the signboard attached to the opposite wall, Leon should be living in the apartment at the very end of the hallway. When Raihan gets to his destination, he can hear deep, hearty laughter coming from somewhere inside the flat.

He knocks on the plain wooden door and waits.

The laughter trails off. The door opens.

An unfamiliar tall, lanky man with short purple hair stares at him with familiar golden eyes. Then he slams the door shut in Raihan’s face.

Raihan blinks, stunned, and instinctively knocks again.

The tall man opens the door again and scowls. ‘Do you _want_ to have this door slammed on you one more time?’

‘I’m just here to—’

Leon’s voice floats in. ‘Who’s that, Hop?’

Raihan stares. ‘ _You’re_ Hop?’

The last time he’d seen Leon’s little brother, the boy had been much smaller and scrawnier, with more childish fiery passion in his eyes and less unmasked disdainful distrust.

Yet when his brother comes to the door, the distrust slips off his face, replaced by pure confusion. ‘I didn’t know who it was, so I just…’ he trails off deliberately, looking a little abashed. It is all a front, of course.

But Leon is all smiles. ‘Oh! This is Raihan, I don’t know if you’d remember him. We went to the same middle school. I didn’t mention, but I found out that his daughter goes to the same kindergarten as Victor.’

Hop gives Raihan a side-eye. It is icy cold. ‘Really? What a coincidence.’

Raihan has half a mind to scowl back at him, but Leon is right there, so he refrains from doing so. Instead, he turns to face Leon and holds up the bento box. ‘I believe this is yours?’

Leon is an awful liar, and an even worse actor. ‘Oh! I was wondering where that went,’ he chuckles. His fingers brush past Raihan’s when he reaches out to take the box from his hands.

Hop’s frown deepens.

Gloria peeps out from where she’d been hiding behind Raihan’s legs. ‘Hi Victor’s princess papa!’

Raihan notices the soft look that enters Hop’s eyes when he stares at his daughter. So apparently his vendetta only extends to Raihan.

Leon flushes faint pink. It would seem that he still remembers the boob grabbing incident. ‘Hey—’

‘I love your cooking!’ Gloria beams. ‘Can I have more?’

Raihan wants nothing more than to get rid of this accursed bento box and go home.

But Leon is scratching the back of his head, looking very pleased with himself. ‘I mean, I do have some leftovers, if you don’t mind—’

Gloria looks like she’s aglow with joy. ‘Victor says the leftovers are the best part! Is he here, too?’

Leon nods. Raihan can tell that he’s both smitten and overwhelmed, which means that his daughter is working her strange magic again.

‘Can we come in? Please?’ Gloria flutters her eyelashes.

Raihan does not remember teaching her _that_.

Before Hop can even squeak in protest, Leon is already undoing the latch at the door. ‘Of course. Victor’s in his room—’

Gloria squeezes past all of the adults’ legs and runs inside the house. ‘Victor! Let’s play!’

Hop angles his body, a subtle action that deliberately blocks Raihan’s passage into their house. ‘Thanks for getting this back to us,’ he says with an imperceptible flatness to his words, ‘you can come pick her up after—'

‘Oh, Hop, don’t be ridiculous,’ Leon laughs. ‘I’m sure he’d rather keep an eye on Gloria.’

There is the sound of something toppling over. Thankfully, there is no tell-tale crash of breaking glass.

Raihan winces. ‘Er. He’s probably right, I really should—’

‘It’s no problem,’ Leon assures him, smiling happily. ‘I’ll go take care of that. Make yourself at home.’

Both Raihan and Hop watch, tense, as Leon hums and makes his way down the same corridor that Gloria had sprinted through.

Once he is out of sight, Hop immediately buries his fist in Raihan’s shirt, pulling him down so that they are eye-to-eye.

‘I don’t know what you’ve heard, and I don’t know what you want with my brother,’ he says coolly, ‘but if I have _any_ reason to suspect that you are here for his money, or to toy with him in _any_ way, I _will_ push you off the balcony. Are we clear?’

Raihan has absolutely no clue what the hell he is talking about. ‘I have absolutely no clue what the hell—’

‘My brother is too trusting,’ Hop says quietly, anger burning in his eyes. ‘I can see the way he looks at you. I don’t know what you’ve told him, or what you’ve done to butter him up, but I want you to know that I have my eye on you.’

Raihan wraps his hand around the unwelcome hand grabbing his shirt and shoves it away. ‘Like I said, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,’ he snaps. ‘I’m just here to give this damn box back to your brother. I don’t know what your fucking problem is, and I’m not—’

Leon’s concerned voice drifts in. ‘Raihan? Are you still outside?’

Raihan continues staring into Hop’s golden eyes when he forces his tone into a casual one to reply, ‘Yeah, having a little trouble getting my sneakers off. Just give me a moment, will ya?’

‘Okay,’ Leon sounds very distracted, ‘cos Gloria’s asking for you.’

The disdain doesn’t leave Hop’s face, but he does take a step back to give Raihan a way in. ‘I’m watching you,’ he reminds him one last time.

‘Yeah, I got that,’ he snaps, making sure to brush past Hop’s shoulder when he steps in through the door.

There is a lot less destruction than he’d expected. For starters, nothing is broken.

Gloria is sitting primly at Leon’s dining table. It is large enough to seat six, which means that Leon must be no stranger to hosting dinner parties.

‘Come on, papa,’ his daughter says, exasperated. ‘I can’t start eating without you!’

Adrenaline is still coursing through Raihan’s veins after the little incident at the door, but he tries to force a cheerful smile for his beloved daughter as he slips into his designated seat. ‘Sorry, sorry. What’s for dinner, chef?’

Usually, when it is just him and Gloria seated at the kitchen island that serves as his swanky dinner table, Gloria will start digging through the take-out that he’s brought home so that she can pretend to be the chef and declare what she has “cooked” for them tonight.

However, because he is not within the safety of his own home, it is Leon who replies, ‘It’s just some beef bowls. Do you want a raw egg in yours?’

Raihan doesn’t need to turn back to know that Hop is glaring at him. He can feel the laser beams. ‘Yeah, sure. Don’t give Gloria any raw eggs, though.’

Gloria pouts. ‘I’m old enough,’ she tries to argue.

Raihan snorts, but he does reach over to pat her head fondly. ‘Maybe one day when you’re older, okay?’

Gloria would usually have some clever, witty retort, but this time there isn’t a single peep out of her, because Leon serves up a bowl of the most beautifully plated homemade beef bowls that Raihan has ever seen in his life.

He’s eaten at Michelin-starred restaurants. He’s rubbed shoulders with some of the industry’s greats. He’s even had one-too-many drinks with some of them at the Ritz. But for some reason, Leon’s creation looks and smells perfect. The wisp of steam hanging onto the fresh, fluffy rice is even in the perfect shape of a cloud hanging over the bowl.

The bowl that appears in front of Raihan is even more beautiful, because the yellow of the egg yolk contrasts beautifully with the brown of the seared beef, and the clear coating of the egg white captures the glow of the ceiling lights.

‘It’s not much,’ Leon admits bashfully, ‘but I hope you like it.’

Gloria’s jaw is hanging open. ‘Papa,’ she demands, ‘how come you can’t cook like that?’

Raihan’s eye twitches. He can hear Hop snickering behind him.

Dammit. Leon’s definitely won this round.

‘Eat before it gets cold,’ he says, and Hop breaks into guffaws.

Leon looks strangely hopeful, for some reason. ‘I could teach you, if you’d like,’ he offers, a dusting of pink across the bridge of his nose. ‘I mean, not that you’ve had a chance to eat anything yet, of course, but if you— uhh— end up liking it, even a little—’

And the murderous intent returns to the eyes stabbing daggers into Raihan’s back. Oof.

‘I’ll consider it,’ he says diplomatically, and Leon looks terribly forlorn.

‘Oh. Okay.’

Gloria is already halfway through her bowl. ‘This is so good,’ she moans.

‘Don’t speak with your mouth full,’ Raihan reminds her.

Not another word comes out of Gloria, because she has her face stuffed into the large bowl.

When Raihan finally takes a bite of his meal, he curses inwardly. Somehow, it tastes even _better_ than it looks. There is a perfect balance of salt and pepper that some of his chef acquaintances have declared takes decades to achieve. The beef melts in his mouth. The onions are caramelised with just the faintest hint of smoke. He thinks he could eat an entire bowl of the rice on its own.

Gloria finally pulls her face out of the bowl. It looks like she’s licked it clean. ‘Papa,’ she says very seriously, ‘go and learn how to cook from Victor’s princess papa.’

Victor’s princess papa looks very pleased with himself. Raihan groans. ‘Maybe some other day when I have time,’ he suggests.

‘Do you want more?’ Leon asks kindly, and Gloria looks at him with her heart in her eyes.

‘Can I?’

Raihan would scowl, but the explosion of sheer delight in his mouth won’t let him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a movement. When he looks up, he notices Victor peeking out from behind a wall.

Victor freezes, looking very guilty to have been caught staring at Raihan. With a soft ‘eep!’ he ducks behind the corner and disappears.

Raihan grins. At least Leon’s son is a traitor too.

‘Hey, Victor,’ he says casually, ‘whatcha doin’ back there, buddy?’

Victor squeaks.

‘You don’t wanna come sit with us? Gloria’s here, y’know.’

Gloria breaks off the cheery conversation she’s having with Leon. ‘Yeah, Victor! C’mon, sit with us.’

There is an empty seat next to Raihan. Hop slides into it before Victor can even poke his head out from behind the corner. When he does, he looks very disappointed to see that the previously empty seat next to Raihan is now taken but cheers up when Gloria waves and points to the seat next to her.

If not for the invisible frosty wall between him and Leon’s strangely overprotective little brother, Raihan could almost say that the scene feels like a family dinner.

Once they are done eating, Gloria turns to Hop with a glint in her eye.

‘Are you a prince?’

Leon sympathises when his brother’s face cycles through at least six different emotions before settling on light embarrassment. ‘I, uhh, I don’t know about that—’

‘Cos Victor’s princess papa has pretty hair,’ Gloria continues, a hand posed cutely at her chin, ‘but you have cool hair.’

‘Uhh?’ Hop looks mildly overwhelmed but flattered. Leon wonders if he has the same expression speaking to Gloria.

Gloria hits the palm of her hand with her other fist. ‘I know! That means you’re Victor’s prince uncle!’

‘I have a name,’ Hop mutters awkwardly, and Leon laughs.

Victor blinks up at Hop. ‘Will you play Monopoly with us? It’s not fun with two people.’

Bless his son. Leon’s been trying to strike up a conversation with Raihan this entire time, but for some reason every time he turns to the other single dad, he finds him engaged in conversation with his daughter, or busy chatting with Hop. If the kids and his little brother go into the other room, he can finally take the chance to apologise for what he said. And maybe have a bit of a private chat with his middle school rival. Just a chat. An entirely platonic chat. They’ll just commiserate the pains of single parenthood together. That’s all.

Who is he kidding? He has a crush. A big, fat crush. It’s not fair that Raihan had showed up at his front door, looking so damned _attractive_ even though he’d been dressed in casual clothes with no make-up on his face. In fact, Leon thinks that he might prefer casual Raihan.

But then again, when he’d looked up some of Raihan’s other photoshoots on the internet, his heart had dropped into the pit of his stomach. He had no idea that his ex-rival could make that kind of facial expression. Or that he had such intense, lazy bedroom eyes. Or that he could _smirk_ like that, oh god—

Leon shivers. That’s a thought he doesn’t want to dwell on too long in front of the kids. Or his little brother.

Victor takes Hop’s hand and leads him away to his bedroom, where Gloria is already audibly setting up their game of Monopoly. For some reason, Hop keeps glancing back over his shoulder. Leon would almost swear that he’s glaring at Raihan, but he can think of no reason for his little brother to dislike Raihan. In fact, every time he’s seen them interact, his brother has been nothing but warm and accommodating.

But then his brother disappears round the corner, and now he is alone. With Raihan.

Leon slides into the seat opposite his crush. ‘I’m sorry about what I said last time.’

Raihan looks up with a slight frown. ‘Oh, that? Nah, it’s nothing. No big deal. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.’

‘Gloria’s very sweet.’ He truly means it. The girl has him wrapped around her finger, and she _knows_ it. She really has the same spirit as her dad.

Raihan’s smile is pure contentment. ‘She really is. I’m lucky to have her.’ His love for his daughter makes him glow.

Leon reaches for one of the clean cups at his end of the table and starts pouring them both some water. For some reason, his throat is very dry. ‘I didn’t mean to start another competition,’ he confesses. ‘I just— I was surprised—’

‘It’s fine,’ Raihan assures him. ‘I mean, let’s be real. If there’s anyone who’d end up competing over _raising a kid_ , it’d be us.’

Us.

 _Fuck_ , Leon is so gay. So, so gay. Oh god.

His laugh is a little high-pitched when it wrests itself out of his throat. ‘Yeah, that sounds about right. You think Rose was surprised to see us again?’

Raihan snickers. Leon doesn’t know whether he should find it attractive, but all he knows is that he does. ‘Man, I think he started getting trauma flashbacks. Remember that time we got the whole class to raise a nest of baby birds?’

Leon finds himself smiling, too. ‘And then the principal called us into his office, but then Rose intervened and saved our asses? I think we almost got expelled.’

Raihan laughs harder. ‘Honestly, I didn’t think you had it in you to raise _anything._ ’

‘Neither did I, but here we are.’

In the ensuing silence, they both reach for their glasses and take sips to make it feel less awkward.

‘I don’t know how you do it,’ Leon confesses quietly. ‘I’m doing this as a full-time thing and I feel like I’m barely getting by, and yet you’ve got your whole career exploding and your daughter is so, she’s so— she’s such a good kid, and you love her so well. It feels like I could be doing so much more, but I’m just…’

He’s just relying on his wildly successful, smart, hardworking younger brother’s income.

He can’t bring himself to say it, to admit to his greatest shame, but Raihan’s looking back at him with an eyebrow raised incredulously.

‘You? You’re doing plenty, I’d say,’ he snorts. ‘You heard the kid. I can’t cook. I’m sure you’ve heard from your son, but all I feed her is take-out and fast food.’ He frowns. ‘I really need to start feeding her better.’

Leon shrugs. ‘That’s nothing, it’s just—’

‘Shut _up_ ,’ Raihan laughs. ‘Your cooking’s incredible. I’ve eaten at almost every Michelin three-starred restaurant in the world, and I’ve never had anything like it.’

His heart thuds painfully in his chest. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, you idiot.’ Raihan’s looking at him with amusement in his eyes. ‘It’s good. Real good. I can see why Gloria likes it.’ He looks pained to admit it.

Leon doesn’t know what to say. He’s never been good at reassuring people, or making them feel better. That’s always been more of Hop’s thing.

‘I could feed her more, if you’d like.’ The words come stumbling out of his mouth. ‘I always make food in huge batches. It’d be no trouble at all.’

Raihan shrugs. ‘I can’t do that to you, it’s too much to ask—’

‘Victor isn’t good at making friends,’ he says softly, and Raihan closes his mouth. ‘He really likes spending time with Gloria. She actually pushes him to talk and makes him tell her his opinion without ever bullying him. I don’t know how she does it. It’d really mean a lot to me if I could come up with more excuses for them to hang out.’

Raihan flicks the incriminating bento box lightly. ‘Just like you invented this excuse for us to hang out?’

He doesn’t look upset, so Leon smiles. ‘You caught me.’

‘You’re a shit liar, that’s what you are.’ Raihan scoffs, but his expression is so soft under Leon’s shitty dining room lights. ‘If you can make Gloria eat her fruits and veggies, you win this round.’

He can’t stop looking at Raihan’s lazy, pleased smile. His heart feels so full. He thinks he could spend an eternity like this.

So Leon grins, and leans forward so he can dramatically whisper, ‘Did you know Hop used to hate onions?’

Hop emerges from the bedroom with a dead look in his eyes. He doesn’t even have the energy to be vaguely menacing in Raihan’s general direction.

‘You alright?’ Leon asks.

‘Gloria almost won my actual money,’ he mumbles vaguely, looking horrified. ‘And then she asked if I was willing to bet my clothing.’

Raihan has most definitely not exposed his daughter to _strip poker_ of all things. He wonders where she’s learning all this.

‘Anyway, it’s getting late.’ And now the daggers are back in Hop’s eyes. ‘I think it’s time for—’

Gloria barrels out of the room with what looks like the entire bank’s worth of Monopoly money in her hands. ‘Can we sleepover, papa? I’ll pay for it with my own money!’ She waves the colourful paper around.

Raihan isn’t sure that he’ll be leaving the house alive if he sleeps over. The glare Hop’s giving him seems to agree entirely. ‘I don’t know, honey, we’ve already imposed—’

Leon looks suspiciously excited. ‘It’s really no big deal, you can stay! It’s getting late, anyway, and I have a guest room—’

‘Lee,’ Hop frowns, ‘I thought I mentioned that I’m sleeping over?’

Leon’s spirits do not dampen. ‘Oh, really? That’s fine too, you can take the spare room and Raihan can sleep in my—’

‘ _No_.’ Hop looks horrified. ‘That’s not what I—’

Leon is not listening. ‘It’ll just be like our old middle school sleepovers, right, Raihan?’

They’re about a decade and two years removed from middle school, but Raihan’s certainly not about to argue against it, not when Hop’s horror is written across his face plain as day.

Gloria runs up to Raihan and holds out a fistful of money. ‘So we’re staying, right?’

It would seem that Leon’s boundless confidence is starting to rub off on his daughter. That is a very terrifying thought. He resolves to think of ways to undo it later.

For now, he turns to Leon with a frown. ‘You alright with letting the kids sleep in the same room? I’ll make Gloria pay if she breaks anything.’

Gloria shakes her head with a stubborn frown of her own. ‘I won’t break anything, papa! I’m not a baby anymore.’

‘Yes you are,’ he coos, ‘but you’re right. Big girls don’t break things, right?’

She nods firmly. ‘Right!’

Leon is smiling very happily. Raihan is almost tempted to squint at him, with how brightly he’s glowing. ‘Then it’s settled. You excited for your first sleepover, Victor?’

For once, Victor isn’t staring at Raihan with unadulterated adoration shining through in his eyes. He’s too busy staring at his own dad, starstruck. ‘You really mean it, dad?’

While the three kids (two of them actual literal children and the third being Leon) excitedly discuss sleeping bags and makeshift tents, Raihan catches Hop’s eye and gives him a smirk.

_I win._

He laughs when Leon’s little brother can only bury his face in his hands, utterly defeated, and makes a cursory excuse when Leon blinks up at him and asks what’s so funny.

**Author's Note:**

> i will leave the bed-sharing up to your bountiful g-rated imaginations :-)
> 
> come yell at me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/syorobao)


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